WASH Technical Advisor at Save the Children Nigeria

Save the Children is the leading independent organization for children in need, with programs in over 120 countries. We save children’s lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential. Save the Children is working in Nigeria because one in five children in Nigeria dies before their fifth birthday. About 40% of children miss out on school and have to work to survive while nearly 2 million children have lost one or both parents to an AIDS-related disease.

We are recruiting to fill the position below

Job Title: WASH Technical Advisor

Job Identification: 4320
Location: Abuja
Team/Programme: Programme, Development and Quality
Grade: 2
Contract Length: 1 year renewable (based on performance and funding availability)
Job Category: Programme Operations

Child Safeguarding

• Level 3: the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or young people; any may allow staff unsupervised access to vulnerable children and young people. 

Role Purpose

• The WASH Technical Advisor (WASH TA) will be responsible for ensuring that WASH programming in Nigeria is supported with quality technical inputs, drive the Country Strategic Plan, and draw upon Health, Nutrition, and WASH strategic priorities.
• The role will lead strategy development and the technical design and implementation of high-quality programmes that deliver change for children in development programming and emergency settings.
• The role supports national advocacy and influencing, while driving strategic partnerships for new business development. 
• It supports the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems to demonstrate impact, while sharing learning across our programmes, teams and partners.
• The role will also link with regional TEs and particularly the regional WASH TE, and contribute to regional learning, evidence generation and knowledge management where appropriate.
• The role will also be expected to champion the mainstreaming of WASH into other sectors besides Health and Nutrition.
• The role will work closely with operations colleagues and with partners in Nigeria, building their capacity and building ownership and agency of local organisations. 
• This position will be expected to engage with the country health sector, and coordination mechanisms, as well as represent the organisation with key stakeholders such as the Ministry of Health, UN agencies, and key INGO / CSO. The role is expected to support development, emergency preparedness, DRR and support the assessment, design and implementation of humanitarian responses with other Public Health staff in the country setting.
• In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

Scope of Role

• Reports To: Programme Quality & Development Director.
• Staff directly reporting to this post: None. However, expected to provide coaching and mentoring support to WASH operational staff and other technical colleagues and local partners if needed.
• Budget Responsibilities: None

Role Dimensions:

• The role is expected to foster relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders including Save the Children members, the Country Office Programme Development & Quality team, advocacy colleagues, Regional Advisors, external representation in coordination groups, technical counterparts in other organisation, donors etc.
• The role is also expected to engage with internal technical working groups and communities of practice and required skills to feed into broader co capacity building and localisation initiatives. 

Key Areas of Accountability
Technical Leadership:

• Provide technical leadership for WASH for the Country Office and set the strategic approach in relation to the wider country strategy.
• Build capacity, mentor and build a supportive WASH community across the Country Office, in conjunction with other WASH colleagues.
• Ensure relevant, evidence-based WASH activities are integrated in Health & Nutrition. Education, Food Security & Livelihoods, Child Protection, CVA, Shelter and Construction programs.
• Ensure relevant cross-cutting thematic gender, protection, safeguarding, disability, other vulnerabilities and also environment, climate change issues are considered into the proposal development. 

Ensuring Programme Quality (Design & Implementation):

• Work closely with new business development colleagues to identify and pursue funding opportunities that allow for both integration into broader humanitarian and resilience multisectoral programmes and standalone WASH projects; engage with technical partners, donors and colleagues across Save the Children 
• Lead the technical scoping, planning, and design and proposal writing during new programme development, and ensure that we design and deliver high quality multisectoral and integrated programmes for children with public health resources, building on global best practice. 
• Work with Child Rights Governance colleagues to ensure that rights-based approach is reflected in our programme design and implementation (in line with our child rights programming approach), with a strong focus on child participation
• Provide oversight and guidance to the programme implementation teams to ensure that thematic programme components are technically sound, implementation methods are consistent with national and global strategies, acknowledged good practice (e.g. Save the Children Common Approaches); and are likely to achieve scale, as well as equitable and sustainable results. 
• Promote and monitor integrated programming in a way that increases overall impact of WASH programmes at the community level.
• Support local partners (government, private sector, CBOs, professional organizations, universities) to design, implement and measure quality WASH programs and understands its link to quality and accountable programming; Contribute to strengthening the use of equality-focused programme principles and good practice across themes and sectors.
• Contribute to develop emergency preparedness plans, and to conduct multisectoral assessments (including gender analysis and disability situation analysis using SC assessment processes and tools) and to design and deliver emergency response and recovery programmes. Monitor trends in order to ensure early action; and lead technical design and implementation and technical coordination of humanitarian responses.
• Participates actively in key relevant internal meetings such as Programme Review Meetings, sectoral team meetings, or Area-based meetings and in donor visit to project(s) as required. 
• Provide technical review of WASH engineering designs (and when requested, engineering designs from other sectors) and hygiene promotion programmes as necessary, as well as review donor reports with elements of WASH.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning:

• In coordination with MEAL team organize training for field offices for deep understand of needs assessment and monitoring and evaluation framework, key indicators and quality benchmarks and monitor, during the field visit the correct use of those tools. 
• Undertake field visits to project sites; work with implementation teams to understand impacts, operational challenges, and continuously identify opportunities for learning and improvement. During field visits monitor, provide advice on use of tools and activities to ensure beneficiaries’ participation to all project cycle management phases with particular focus on women and children.
• In coordination with MEAL Managers at field offices level, support WASH team and when relevant, address challenges and possible solutions/proposals in use and regular data reporting; and in elaborating useful documents that will be disseminated back to field offices and to key stakeholders. 
• Contribute to organisational learning ensuring that learning from our programmes is shared across the Country Office and our partners, as well as with colleagues in the wider regional and global community in Save the Children. 

Networking & External Engagement:

• In alignment with Country Office strategy and leadership, engage in strategic positioning with donors, partners and government in-country, and ensure that Save the Children is a partner of choice in WASH.   
• Ensure that Save the Children is influencing and learning from others through national technical coordination and networking bodies such as NEMA, SEMA and WaSH clusters and working groups. 
• Strengthen civil society engagement in national dialogues and policy processes through working closely with advocacy and child rights governance colleagues. Ensure that the diverse voices of children, girls and boys are equitably heard and represented in our WASH work.
• Support advocacy efforts around WASH needs in collaboration with SC’s ACCM department, the WASH, collaborating agencies/organisms and donors, and SC members, as appropriate 
• Represent SC’s program to National and Local government representatives, donors, partner agencies, etc. as required. 
• Ensure the quality, clarity and consistency of technical components of internal and external reports (e.g. programme reports, sit-reps, internal updates), working closely with awards, programme implementation and communications colleagues as needed. 
• Leverage and liaise with technical colleagues from across Save the Children, including technical working groups, universities, centres of research and centres of excellence, ensuring that learning from the Country Office is shared with others and global lessons brought back.

Safeguarding:

• Work with the Safeguarding Team to budget for Child Safeguarding Activities during proposal development and ensure that safeguarding activities are captured in project design.

Qualifications

• Master's or WASH Degree in Hydraulic, Hydrologic, Hydrogeological, Civil Engineering, Construction or related field.
• Significant professional experience, at least 5 years in WASH sector at managerial position in a humanitarian and/or resilience/development context.
• Excellent understanding of the WASH sector within Nigeria context in rural or urban, and main problematic linked to WASH (epidemics, climate change, CBI, etc.).
• Master’s Degree in Public Health, Social Sciences, Anthropology, Geography or related to WASH or equivalent experience.
• Degree or course in humanitarian project management or strategy with proven experience on it.

Experience & Skills:

• Experience working in integration with other sectors such as health, nutrition, education, protection, FSL, shelter or construction an added advantage.
• Experience of promoting quality and impact through at least one cross-cutting area: gender equality and inclusion, adaptive and safer programming; child rights; disability; migration and displacement. 
• Experience writing donor funding proposals for institutional grants in excess of US$1 million.
• Good interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate and negotiate clearly and effectively at all levels, taking into account cultural and language difficulties. 
• Commitment to Save the Children values, including willingness to abide by and enforce the Child Safeguarding policy.
• Proven capacity to supervise, train and coach staff and partners in WASH technical skills.
• Fluency in English, written and oral; and an ability present complex information in a succinct and compelling manner. (French optional) 

Behaviours (Values in Practice):
Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds their team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in accordance with the context, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own professional development and encourages their team to do the same.
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others.
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a national and even regional scale.

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, technical advisors and working groups, Members and external partners and supporters.
• Values diversity sees it as a source of competitive strength.
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions.
• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity.

Key Competencies (Indicative / Key Competencies):
Technical Competencies:

• Able to carry out Situational assessment and analysis: Adapts existing tools and leads on appropriate assessments and able to link local to national and global level advocacy efforts, supporting localisation of change and influencing global policy development.
• Drives Quality WASH Programming: Trains and mentors others on the application of relevant WASH sector standards.
• Understanding of Impact of emergencies on WASH and child outcomes: Engages in the humanitarian aid architecture, the cluster approach and inter-cluster coordination of public health / WASH information and demonstrates an understanding of quality WASH programming.
• Able to build integrated multi-sectoral programmes: Builds the capacity of others to design and implement integrated programming incorporating WASH and specific programming and advocacy.

Generic Competencies:

• Being the Voice of Children: Promotes evidence-based policy and public engagement that includes the voices of children and their communities.
• Advancing Equality & Inclusion: Displays a commitment to ensuring everything we do considers the most deprived and marginalised children.
• Building & Strengthening Partnerships: Promotes working with diverse partners as critical to delivery.
• Child Rights: Promotes the rights of children in own work and in work with colleagues and peers.

Additional Job Responsibilities:

• The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities:

• The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

• We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Safeguarding our Staff:

• The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy

Health and Safety:

• The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.

Application Closing Date
20th November, 2023.